To the Editor:
I want to commend Naomi Klimaszewski for her great reporting skills.
She writes in an easy, informal style and makes you feel that you were there as well! I particularly enjoyed the interview of the new school board member and the inside look at the fire department.
Sincerely,
Susan Cuttriss
Fillmore

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To the Editor:
To Whom it May Concern:
I am looking for any relatives of Edith R. Barnes. She was born in 1878 in Stockton, Kansas. She died in 1935.
Edith had a brother Merton who was an adman for a local paper in Fillmore, California in 1930. Merton had two sons, Henry and Gay Barnes and two daughters, Edna and Barbara Barnes. Barbara Barnes also worked at a local newspaper as a Society Editor in Fillmore in 1930.
Edith R. Barnes was my grandmother and I would like very much to have a picture of her.
Please contact me if you have any information.
Thank You,
Junelle Benedict, PO Box 662, Jacksonville, OR 97530 (541-899-8266)

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To the Editor:
Mr. Gunderson,
After reading your letter of concern, I am wondering where these comments are coming from. The decisions that you oppose are those of past Councils (Hernandez, Cuevas and Conaway),and you've endorsed these individuals in past elections.
Especially since I and so many in the public asked the Council not to spend so much on the Sewer Plant and the financing. True, we had no choice but to comply with Water Board requirements. But we did have a choice on;
1. Where to locate the plant. Past Councils and staff CHOSE to buy land from the business park developer to anchor and facilitate their development and to help them pay for the levee. We already owned land elsewhere that would have been suitable and could have saved millions in land cost, infrastructure costs and now flood insurance costs.
2. The City had a CHOICE whether to accept the too high bids. Santa Paula and Piru both chose to re-bid their systems when the costs came in too high. (Piru’s $14,000,000 plant was paid for with $8.5M in grants and $5.5M in a 1% loan. Why didn’t we apply?)
3. We also CHOSE to use municipal bonds rather than the low cost State Revolving Loans that were recommended in 2004. I am a finance professional and I know how critical it is to get the lowest interest rates possible. That wasn’t done.
I and others warned the Council that the consequences of these choices would be too much of a burden. Now and for many years it will be. These were CHOICES that were made by previous Councils who CHOSE to ignore the constituents , not the new Council. As a candidate for the Fillmore City Council, I stand firm in my beliefs that when a person is elected to the City Council, it should behoove them to think of the lasting consequences and how these decisions will effect the community as a whole; for today and for the future.
Brian Sipes
2010 Fillmore City Council Candidate